Review: Ride with the Devil

Daniel Woodrell's novel was entitled Woe to Live On -- this at least clues us in on the intent of the film based on his novel. Alas, Ang Lee's latest effort has been titled Ride With the Devil, which suggests a rousing Civil War epic. That suggestion is misleading.

The film follows the experiences of Jake Roedell (Tobey Maguire), son of German immigrants who considers himself a Southerner first and foremost. Though the pro-Southern Bushwhackers take him in, they constantly remind him of his origins and his nickname "Dutchie," while affectionate on the surface, also brands him as an outsider. His best friend is Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), son of a plantation owner, and they go along with Black John (James Caviezel) as he leads their unit to raids against the North's Union soldiers and sympathizers.

Other key figures in Jake's life are Pitt Mackeson (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), the volatile and spiteful Bushwhacker who develops a hatred for Jake; George Clyde (Simon Baker), epitome of the Southern gent; and Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright), Clyde's former slave who joins the pro-Southerners out of loyalty to his friend and former master. Then there is the feisty Sue Lee (Jewel), a widow of a three-week-old marriage, who feeds the men's hunger and Jack Bull's hungry heart.

Deaths abound in the film - the soldiers are constantly reminded of the dying going on on both sides yet somehow none of the young boys can quite be satisfied. It is not out of thirst for violence - though for Black John and Pitt Mackeson it is a way of life - but because the small raids they have been involved in don't quite compensate for their enforcement into manhood. Like the soldiers in Three Kings, they keep looking for the real battle, the one that will justify their patriotism, their bearing of arms.

They get one with the 1863 raid on Lawrence, Kansas, which thrills the movie to interest. It's bloody and brutal and vengeful and Jake, while involved, somehow can't force it into comprehension and finds honor where he can. He defends an innkeeper against Pitt Mackeson's bloodlust but makes it clear to the intended victim that he is no sympathizer. The film also pulses, on a different note, when it relaxes into its characters and light comedy is brought to the fore. When Jake, Jack Bull, Clyde and Holt take shelter in the woods of Sue Ann's home, the banter of the boys and the friction created by the close quarters sparks the drama.

Otherwise, Ride With the Devil is enveloped in a glacial bloodlessness. The acting can't be faulted for Maguire and Wright do fine work as do Jewel and Caviezel, whose Black John burns with both revenge and the burden of the fight. Rhys Meyers, with his rock star swagger and diabolical verve, threatens to bring the film to full-bodied life. Yet, as with The Ice Storm -- which also had all the elements in place - there is no emotional engagement.

Ride With the Devil is pretty to look at, no doubt - panoramic shots of the Kansas and Missouri lands catch the eye - but what's it all about? Yes, the ideas make themselves known - neighbor against neighbor, divisions being established even as history dictates that all men, regardless of race or station, are indeed created equal. Death certainly backs history up. The film, however, does not make us feel enough. We follow young Jake and though tragedy does befall him, he comes off as too passive a character to lead us for very long.

Properly enough, it is the outsiders - Jake, Sue Ann and Holt: immigrant's son, widow and woman, slave - who survive at film's end. They are the future of America, where tradition is honored but individuality is celebrated.

Ride with the Devil

Directed by: Ang Lee

Written by: James Schamus; based on the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel, Jeffrey Wright, Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jim Caviezel, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Weston, Mark Ruffalo, Zach Grenier, Margo Martindale